Lean Six Sigma at Xerox and Young & Rubicam

The January 2006 issue of CMO Magazine has two excellent articles highlighting the use of Lean Six Sigma at Xerox and their ad agency Young & Rubicam.

The article Lean Machine specifically goes into detail on how Xerox’s corporate marketing group came on board with Six Sigma and is seeing some outstanding results. For those still wondering if Lean Six Sigma can be used in marketing, this article shouts a definitive, YES!

Most interesting is the additional article Creative Thinking, a powerful example of Lean Six Sigma applied in the creative environment of an ad agency. Young & Rubicam are not into Lean Six Sigma for the savings, they are in it for the efficiencies gained that free up resources:

“‘Our currency is not money, it’s our creative,’ says Nicholson, executive VP and managing director of Y&R Brands. ‘This is all about enabling our creative and account people to do the best work while eliminating all the waste and the processes that don’t add any value. That’s where we’ve seen the biggest benefit.’

“‘Have we saved money? Sure,’ Nicholson adds. ‘But that’s not what we’re in it for. We haven’t gone crazy trying to do ROI on a lot of projects. In some cases there will be no pure dollar value. But we’re freeing people up to really add value for the client. And that’s been huge to us.’”